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About the Great Eastern Trail

The Great Eastern Trail is America's new long-distance hiking trail.
It stretches from Alabama to New York, a total of about 1600 miles. This gives hikers a new adventure in the east, and will hopefully alleviate pressure on the much-loved Appalachian Trail.

Originally called the
Western Appalachian Alternative, the idea was promoted by Earl Shaffer,
the first Appalachian Trail thruhiker. The GET is in alignment
with Benton MacKaye's original vision of braided trails throughout
the east, and the GET incorporates many locations that Benton MacKaye included on his original maps.

Trails that host the Great Eastern Trail include:

Alabama Pinhoti Trail

Georgia Pinhoti Trail

Lookout Mountain Section of the GET

Cumberland Trail

Pine Mountain Trail

TuGuNu Trail

Allegheny Trail

Headwaters Section of the GET

Tuscarora Trail

Standing Stone Trail

Green Ridge State Forest trails

Mid State Trail

Crystal Hills Trail

We hiked in part to raise awareness of the Great Eastern Trail. Please consider donating to the Great Eastern Trail Association, a 501(c)3 organization or to your local trail club.

More information on the route of the Great Eastern Trail can be found at their website: www.greateasterntrail.net. Additional resources are listed on our Links page.

I've really enjoyed your journey. When you reach PA, will you be hiking the Standing Stone Trail or southern Mid State Trail? The SST is rocky and rugged in places, but has some fascinating history and amazing views. It is still a work in progress. It passes through two state parks (showers) and Three Springs is a nice little trail town. The Alan Seeger Natural Area has beautiful old growth trees and rhodo jungles. Best of luck.

Hi! The Maps page http://www.gethiking.net/p/guides.html has all the information about maps. There is no one single source, so it does take some doing to accumulate the resources you will need. I found this to be a really fun part of the planning process, but it is an additional challenge.